According to Hindu mythology, the gods mixed up a divine elixir of immortality. Rahu, an asura disguised himself as a god and drank some of the elixir. The sun and the moon (Soriya and Chanthra) saw this and alerted Vishnu. Before he could swallow the elixir, Vishnu cut off Rahu’s head.

The head remained immortal, and it is believed that Rahu chases the sun and moon across the sky and occasionally catches one of them, eats it and causes an eclipse. Then the victim falls out of Rahu’s throat and the eclipse ends